1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a proxy server, and more particularly, to a P2P proxy server capable of participating electronic apparatuses having no built-in P2P middleware in a P2P infrastructure and a communication method thereof.
This work Was supported by the IT R&D program of MIC/IITA[2006-S068-01, Development of Virtual Home Platform based on Peer-to-Peer Networking]
2. Description of the Related Art
In a P2P communication technology, communication entities can directly communicate to each other without help of a relay server. In order to implement stable P2P communication, seamless communication is ensured between the communication entities. However, in actual communication environment, disconnection of the seamless communication frequently occurs due to firewall, network address translation, non-IP terminals, dynamics of terminal address, terminal having no built-in P2P middleware, and the like.
Therefore, there has been proposed a ubiquitous computing technology. In the ubiquitous computing technology, a virtual network space for connection between electronic apparatuses in a home network is configured, and contents and services are easily searched and shared any time and anywhere in the virtual network space.
In addition, recently, there has been actively and widely researched an ubiquitous computing technology, in which an overlay-type virtual network is configured on existing transfer layers for seamless communication between the electronic apparatuses, and P2P type cooperative service is provided to the electronic apparatuses based on the overlay-type virtual network.
In addition, due to increasing users' demand for sharing personal contents and development of memory technologies, external storage apparatuses such as a USB memory are combined to the in-door electronic apparatus such a video recorder (VR) and an MP3 player.
The electronic apparatuses provide various connection methods for uploading contents stored in the electronic apparatuses on a personal computer or the Internet. For example, USB, wireless network, or Bluetooth may be used for the connection. All these methods download the contents using applications or driver programs provided by manufacturers of the electronic apparatuses, and edit the downloaded content or register the downloaded contents on Internet.
Due to development of technologies, the in-door electronic apparatus can be used as contents source providing apparatuses. An amount of personal contents is greatly increased, and users' demands for sharing contents are also increased.
Therefore, technologies for enabling in-door electronic apparatuses, particularly, electronic apparatuses using the ubiquitous computing technology to participate in an P2P infrastructure so as to serve as contents source providing apparatuses have been proposed and used.
However, in order to participate the electronic apparatuses in the P2P infrastructure, a P2P middleware for connecting different types of servers and clients in a P2P communication distributed computing environment needs to be additionally built in each of the electronic apparatuses.
Therefore, conventionally, electronic apparatuses having no built-in P2P middleware.